Friday, Bloody Friday
by Graficcha
Summary: One day a year, our cursed family must stay close, in order to survive a certain friday. Tohru clueless, Kyo apathic, Haru upset, dramatic Shigure...major OOCness, but for the sake o' the story
1. The morning

_disclaimer: me no own furuba, ya?_

_...but the idea's mine. XD_

_One fateful morning, Tohru prepares to got o school, but the Souma's don't seem to behave normal today. The cursed family gets together to try to survive the annual _**Bloody Friday **_also known as...__take a guess w_

_Watch it, major OOC-ness. But what the heck, enjoy!_

**Friday, Bloody Friday**

Or: a special Souma day

_Chapter1: the morning…_

That one fateful day, seven thirty in the morning, Tohru Honda came bounding into the kitchen of the Souma house. She had already prepared for school, and was eager to see her friends. When she came into the kitchen, she expected to see Shigure cooking or cleaning, smiling his head off, or being amused at a certain rat and cat bickering over who'd get the last fried egg.

But no one was there. There was no trace of any of the Soumas, not even an empty glass of milk, that Kyo usually left behind when he came downstairs to drink something in the middle of the night.

The girl's brows furrowed in confusion. She glanced at the clock…no, she wasn't late or early.

"Anyone here?" she asked quietly. It was awfully quiet in the residence. She was hoping to hear someone reply, or hear someone yelling, or fighting, or even breaking something. She'd be relieved to hear a sound that meant trouble if only to confirm that she wasn't alone in the house…

She checked the kitchen again, and then the hall. No, no sign of anyone leaving or preparing to go to school. Tohru really began to worry now. It wasn't anything for the Soumas leave her alone without telling her…

At last, she retreated on her steps and went back up the stairs, to the sleeping rooms. When she stood in the middle of the upper hall, she could hear nothing…except for the faint noise of someone breathing slowly. Suddenly, she heard a whimper coming out of Yuki's room.

Without thinking twice, she opened his door and yelled his name. "Yuki-san?"

"Waaaah!" the rat sat up straight on his futon, looking mightily terrified.

Tohru hurried to him and calmed him, barely restraining herself from embracing him. The rat looked even grayer than usual, it looked as if he hadn't slept well and his grayish hair was a mess. His breathing was fast and uncontrolled.

It took him a few moments to recognize Tohru, and when he became fully aware of the situation, his demeanor suddenly changed. His eyes went wide, and with a frightened whimper, he ducked away from her and covered his head with his bed sheet.

For a moment, Tohru was taken aback by his reaction. But she easily regained her composure. Carefully, she placed her hand on Yuki's head under she sheets.

"Are you ok?"

Yuki let out a quivering sigh. "Y…yeah, I'm fine."

Tohru counted to ten in her mind, keeping her hand where it was and smiling. _'..eight…nine…ten!'_

At the count of ten, Yuki came out of his sheets, looking a bit more confident now. Tohru gave him one of her famous gentle smiles. _'They're so predictable sometimes'_ she thought.

"Now what's the matter?"

dudududunnn

…

Ten o'clock, front door of the Souma house. Someone rang the doorbell.

Tohru ran to the door, and wondered who it could be. As long as it wasn't more trouble…

"Hatsuharu-san!"

For a moment, the cursed ox looked amazed. Wasn't she supposed to be at school right now? He growled.

Now Tohru looked taken aback. She knew this member of the family fairly well, and there was something that looked wrong about him. When she saw that his hair was a wee bit darker than his usual white bangs, and that he had a mean glint in his eye, she jumped.

"Oh…i-…it's .._you_!" she stammered. "He-heh…Come in!"

He cast her a dark look, and then he suddenly jerked. He behaved totally different than Tohru 'd have expected.

The young man, who should've been at school himself, bowed through his knees, held his arms in front of his chest and looked around frantically, as if he was a squirrel that felt a cat nearby.

"There it is again!" he whimpered. Tohru was about to ask _what_ was there again, when Black Haru clutched his head and pushed her into the house. By the time she'd yelped and gotten up, he had already rushed inside, right past her, while slamming the door shut. When she looked at him, he still had this awfully terrorized look in his grey eyes.

The ox leaned back against the wall and sighed. He glanced at her.

'Sorry.', he whispered, and then slid to the floor, hugging his knees. He looked as messy as Kyo's room after a day of releasing his frustrations on his possessions.

After a long silence, Tohru found her voice again. "What's wrong?"

At those words, Black Haru jumped up and yelled: "You're askin' me what's _wrong_? Don't you see it? Outside, there's this noise, and that weird light, and the smell…it's driving me nuts! And Kisa's gone again, all because of today!"

"Ok…noise, light, smell, and Kisa's gone…" Tohru repeated "Wait did you say Kisa's gone!"

Haru sighed. "Yeah…it's the weather, I say! She feels it too." When he saw the confused look on Honda's face, he was confused too. "What?" Tohru could barely squeeze in a faint 'I don't quite get it' before Black Haru stated "You don't feel it, do you?"

"I'm afraid she doesn't, Haru-kun." A voice sounded from the kitchen. When Haru recognized the voice as Shigure's, his face lightened up. "'Gure-san! God I'm glad you're ok!" Without any further explanation to Tohru, he rushed inside the kitchen, and found Kyo, Yuki and Shigure sitting around the table.

"God, it's awful out there! The light is all funny, and everything sounds dangerous, and the smell's all weird. I think I'm not gonna survive this year and ooooh…" The rest of his lament was drowned in a wail and the sobbing that followed. Haru slumped to his knees next to Shigure, who had tears in his eyes.

Their eyes full of grief locked for a moment, and then they hugged each other and cried dramatically.

Yuki and Kyo, who were both exceptionally silent, turned their heads to them. With an apathic look , they both nodded. "You're right. " Yuki said quietly, voice quivering slightly. "We checked this morning, we went outside in the garden, and we can tell you it's no shame to feel bad."

"Yeah, this has to be the worst year in a century…" Kyo added. "I'm not goin' out there today."

Tohru had listened to the whole conversation. _'God, they've all been acting weird today. First, I find out that No one bothered to get up in the morning, then Yuki's all off, and a few minutes later I find Kyo-kun hiding in the attic, armed with his blankie and a can of milk._

_And then Shigure-san. Usually he's the first one to get out of bed, but he slept 'till half past nine…it's nothing like him to skip his morning stroll .I had to drag them all downstairs and force them to get something to eat and get dressed. And they're all complaining about the weather…I hope it's not some kind of a family-disease…'_

One thing was clear: Tohru had no clue about what was going on. The poor Shigure , for the half hour he had been awake, had been constantly on the verge of tears, Yuki and Kyo were drowned in apathy and didn't move unless told to. As long as she didn't suggest they go for a walk and relax outside, at least.

They had both 'checked the air' in the early morning, they said, and going outside was suicide. After she had gotten Shigure up, she had made them all some breakfast and had installed them in the kitchen, where she could keep an eye on them. (All this while consoling Shigure, who broke out in sobs at the sight of the floor, Kyo's shoes, a pen, a rubber ducky in the bathroom and Yuki's messy hair.)

The three of them had been sitting at the table for the last half hour, not budging an inch, no bickering or snarling between Kyo and Yuki, nor snapping at Shigure's wailing every now and then. And then Black Haru at the front door, who seemed to be in a similar state and who had just told that Kisa went missing again.

When Haru had calmed down Tohru gave him a mug of hot tea. The shizo eyed the mug, then looked at her with an unbelieving look in his eyes. "It's hot…"

Tohru raised one eyebrow. "Whaddaya mean 'it's hot'? I thought you liked it that way?"

When he placed the mug sown on the table and stared at it, suddenly looking pitiful and at a loss for words, she finally figured it out. "Oh, you mean it's TOO hot?" Black Haru nodded and smiled weakly, totally unlike him. "Yeah.." he said, almost too quiet to hear. Tohru took his mug and poured some cold water into it. Then she handed it to him again. "Thanks."

Tohru turned around, and out of the corner of her eyes she could see him blowing at the tea, as if he was afraid to get his tongue or his fingers burned. Finally, he carefully took a sip, and when he concluded that the tea wasn't dangerous, he leaned back a bit and enjoyed his drink, sighing contently.

"You guys gonna be ok? "Tohru asked from the hall. "I'm going to look for Kisa, okay?"

Two voices hummed a 'yeah', one wail was heard, and the last one advised her "Don't get lost! The streets are different today, I got lost at least SIX TIMES on my way here!"

Tohru sighed and left the house.

'_Maybe…maybe I should call Hatori-san. He might know what's wrong today…oh great, now it's starting to rain!'_

_R&R pwease, I'll update soon, cuz' inspiration's surging!_


	2. early noon

**Disclaimer:** I don't own nuthin', but I own meh own dreams of a certain pairing (I swear, I dream of Furuba at night!).

**Fallen from the sky:** Yay, first review! -hands a cookie- Well, yeah, they're all acting weird. But this Friday IS indeed different to them, since they're cursed. It's like being sick and feeling like shit all day long, that makes people go nuts. -grins-

**kitsuneoriginal:** Thankies for the review! Well, the idea of a crying Shigure just popped into my head, I don't know where I got it from. But hey, don't get depressed yet, this chapter's more drama-like (I think).

_Chapter2: before midday_

Tohru Honda trudged through the rain, looking for any sign of a little girl called Kisa, or a stray Tiger. She had been looking for an hour now, and she was worried about the boys she had left behind at the Souma residence.

She was about to turn around and go back to the house, when a startled yelp from the other side of the road attracted her attention. When she looked at where the yell had come from, she didn't quite know whether to laugh out loud or be very concerned.

On the pavement near a flower-shop stood the family's doctor, Hatori, soaked in dirty street water with a bundle in his arms that looked a lot like a very displeased little tiger. While watching out for cars that passed, Tohru ran up to him, calling his name to get his attention.

He only really noticed her when she was right next to him, because he was busy trying to wipe the dirt off his face. Apparently, a car had driven into a muddy puddle and as a result sprayed a wet shower over the 'dragon'. When Hatori saw, her, the usually stern doctor blushed fiercely and didn't know what to say.

"Hi!" Tohru greeted him. "I see you found her! Great! I was about to go back and call you, because you see, the others are all acting weird and…"

"Say no more!" Hatori interrupted her, a lot louder than he usually spoke. "We need to get to the Shigure's house quickly!" he said. "This day is driving me crazy!"

'_Him too…? Oh no.'_ Tohru thought. _'Well, better hurry up, then.'_

……

Half an hour later, Tohru had managed to get Hatori and Kisa safely to the house. They both complained about the same symptoms as the rest of the present family (actually, Kisa refused to speak again, but Hatori could confirm that she was extremely grumpy due to the 'weather', too), and Hatori seemed to suffer from a tick that caused him to say 'you know 'all the time like a little shy kid.

As soon as they had arrived back home, Tohru had offered the dirty wet dragon to take a hot bath, and she had taken a towel and dried Kisa, while trying to avoid rousing her too much.

Like when they first met, the tiger was pretty stressed, only this time, the whole family seemed to suffer from an unusually stressy day. While Hatori was in the bathroom, the Soumas were quiet. They were still sitting at the table, while Kisa had crawled into a corner.

She had gruffly accepted the warm blankets Tohru had brought her, at least. Now that things were a bit quieter, Tohru went to console a (again) sobbing Shigure. Kyo and Yuki were still apathic.

"Now, now…Shigure-san, don't cry…" Tohru said, nearly-hugging him. "Why don't you go to your room and try to write something?"

"NooooooOOOOoooo…." Shigure wailed, even louder than before. "That's –sob- my problem-sob-"

"I've got-sobsob- a writer blooooOOooock!"

With a last wail, he bumped his head into the table and lay still, sniffing silently. It was a really sad sight for Tohru, seeing the ever-happy and always laughing dog being so sad. The only thing she could do was pat him on the head and stroke his back gently, whispering softly that such things don't last forever and stuff like that.

After a while, Shigure stopped crying. With a still sad face, he moved his arms onto the table and laid his head to rest on them. Then he only stared blankly into a void before him at something only he could see.

Tohru hesitantly moved away from him, and when she saw that he wasn't going to cry again, she hurried upstairs to get some more blankets. When she crossed the bathroom door, she heard a muffled 'ouch' from inside.

Out of habit, she opened the door hurriedly, and she saw Hatori standing over the sink, half naked, lower half covered by a towel. Blushing in a deep shade of red, the girl turned around again, when he called her.

Slowly, she turned around, and only then she noticed some mean-looking cuts on his hands.

"Oh my god what happened!" she nearly yelled at him.

"Eh…you see, I took a day off, you know, because of…today, you know…"

"Get to the point!" Tohru exclaimed, busy looking for antiseptics in the medicine box, exactly what Hatori had been doing, judging by the bloodstains all over the box. Even if she was a nice girl, and the Soumas were usually nice people, she was becoming more and more stressed.

"Ah. Well, I was planning on putting my scalpels in my safe, just to prevent…accidents, you know. And then, the box fell out of my hands and I cut myself. Then I couldn't find any antiseptics (Tohru frowned at this, the guy was a _doctor_ for goodness' sake!), and then I left my office you know…I hope I locked the door. On the way to the pharmacy I ran into Kisa, and later into you when I was going to the main house to deliver her."

"And now you're here…"

"Yeah…But I was coming over anyway…you know, being alone on a day like this is dangerous…"

"Ah, gotcha!" Tohru triumphantly held up a bottle of antiseptics.

"Oh! Thanks, Tohru –san…but might I suggest going to get some more over at the store?"

"Why? Are you guys planning on killing each other today?"

"Nah, just a hunch…you never know. Besides, I think I'll have to, you know, use all of what's left…"

Hatori grinned sheepishly, and his grin was so wide he gave Tohru the creeps, she had never seen him this embarrassed;

"Eh! …right. I'll go right away, ok?"

" …You do that."

Tohru looked at his injured hands again. "You're gonna be okay?" Hatori only nodded.

Right before she left the bathroom, Tohru noticed a huge bruise on his back. She was about to ask, but a look at the room itself answered in his place: a bar of soap lay on the ground, and there was a dent in the edge of the bathtub.

Tohru closed the door and sighed _'This must be the first time they don't need each other to get hurt…_'

…

When she passed through the kitchen, she saw that Kyo had stood up. By the looks of it, he had just checked the fridge, because he had left it open. Tohru went to close the door, noticing by the way that Shigure and Haru had fallen asleep on the table, and then looked inside the fridge.

Great…they were out of milk. Kyo had sat down again, and had laid his head on the table, looking pitifully dissatisfied.

"I'm going to the market. I'll bring milk, okay?" Tohru addressed him.

Much to her relief and pleasure, the cat responded by closing his eyes and smiling contently. She could've sworn she heard a purr. She took her bag, crept silently past the sleeping pair, patted the still oblivious Yuki on the back and affectionately stroked Kyo's hair on her way out.

When she was finally outside, she looked back one last time, and then hurried to the mall.

…..---….

Meanwhile, eleven thirty, in Ayame's shop…

"But boss! You can't expect me to go! There's still plenty of things to create before the weekend!..."

"Mine-chan…I'm serious!" Ayame yelled, before he could hold himself back. From the moment he realized how harsh he had sounded, he looked at the floor in shame. He had never _yelled_ at his assistant before.

Well, he had tried to explain that he really couldn't work at a day like this, that it was a miracle that he had managed to get up in the morning at all. The snake had done his best to get some work done, but by now he had a terrible headache.

_Damn that weird noise…and damn that weird light…Why does this have to happen at least once _every_ year?_

So he had decided to quit for today, and he had told Mine that she could take the rest of the day off. Unfortunately, she wasn't going to leave before they had finished 'that last thing' they were always busy on.

Usually, when they should quit in the evening, Ayame enjoyed working for a couple of hours into the night with her to get their current item finished, but today was different.

And now he had yelled at her…she looked so hurt…

"I'm sorry for bothering you, boss…"

Mine bowed politely, and made her way to the door with tears in her eyes. She had been trying to cheer him up a bit, and she was worried about him, but when she irritated him…She could better go home and relax, just as he had said.

But how was she supposed to relax when she _knew_ he wasn't okay…he had been acting strange for the whole morning.

Ayame watched her turn her back to him, about to leave. Inwardly, he sighed. He hadn't meant to hurt her feelings, after all she was always so sweet to him, and she was a real delight to work with. There's no reason anyone would want to harm her…

The snake turned around to get his things to pay the other Souma's a visit, after all it was dangerous to stay alone on a day like this. He had barely made one step, when he heard Mine gasp loudly.

In a split-second, he had turned around, and found himself face-to-face with a group of five pretty dirty -Ayame sniffed disgusted – street-thugs. One of them had grabbed Mine and held his hand over her mouth to prevent her from yelling. The brunette's eyes were wide with fear behind her glasses.

"Whoa, whoa. That's pretty fast_, miss_." One of the boys said in a mocking tone, mildly surprised at Ayame's fast reaction. "Afraid we might break your doll?" He pointed at Mine with his thumb. The other four laughed gruffly.

Ayame immediately saw the danger. They were looking at the counter in the back end of the shop.

'_They're after the money! I wonder what'll happen if they notice that there's no money there...I never keep the money in here, it goes straight to the bank or to Mine's salary…'_

In a flash, he knew what they were going to do..._'They'll tear the shop to pieces, and then go after me and Mine-chan…'_ But the snake wasn't going to let them…

Before any of them could react, he had punched the first one straight in the jaw, breaking it effectively, and kicked the second one to the floor.

In a matter of seconds, Ayame was fighting three of them while the fourth was trying to get up and the fifth holding Mine. The agile snake hadn't fought for months, but his body rapidly remembered every drilled movement from his younger days, when the Soumas of his generation had trained martial arts.

He ducked, occasionally kicked one of them and dodged their punches, but he knew he couldn't keep this up. By executing a sly maneuver, he managed do slide under one of the guys' legs and run to his counter. In one fluid motion, he kicked himself into the air against the table and landed a hit with his heel against the back of one of the men's head, knocking him unconscious.

When he landed again, he jumped over the desk and took the chair that stood there. With it, he knocked out number two, by crashing it against the man's skull.

As he fell, his comrade took his place. Ayame bounded out of his reach, but the one with the broken jaw, intent on revenge, had gotten up and grabbed his left arm. Grinning, he used pure force to throw the much lighter Ayame into the wall, spraining the snake's shoulder in the process.

Gasping from the sudden jolt of pain, Ayame could see the two of them coming at him. His eyes widened in fear for a moment, but the thought of leaving his Mine-chan to these men made him hiss in determination.

Indeed, that certain determination that made him so able to slither out of any situation. His eyes glinted. He waited for the right moment….

"I order you to stop! How dare you defile this place!" He shouted at them in his famous 'I'm-the-lord-and-master-of-drama'-voice. Today it felt awfully weird to speak like this, he didn't feel like playing drama at all, but he was a good actor.

In the moments they looked at him strangely, taken aback by their victim's _odd_ reaction that only sparked their anger even more, Ayame managed to roundhouse-kink one of them to the ground and escape through the gap.

While jumping over the fallen man, he kicked again, this time at the neck. The guy went still.

'_Only two left…'_ Ayame thought, switching his focus frantically from the remaining attacker to the one holding Mine and trying to regain his breath. His shoulder hurt terribly, and his headache had worsened.

When the last man standing threw two punches at him, Ayame got hit on his head by the first, injuring his forehead and barely blocked the second with his right hand. After a short lock, he managed to twist the guy's arm behind his back and with a quick –snap-, he broke it. The wail was soon stopped by a punch in the face from a _very_ pissed off Ayame.

As soon as the fourth man had dropped to the floor, he abruptly turned to face Mine's attacker.

The huge man shivered involuntarily at the snake's piercing glare. He felt that the guy they had all called a 'woman', had locked onto a target, and that target was him. But when he saw that his buddies had managed to injure Ayame, he became more confident and risked loosening one arm around Mine to punch him.

Mine seized the opportunity now that her mouth was free and bit the man into his arm, and she bit _hard_. He gave a startled yelp, and dropped her. Before she ran from him, she turned around and bluntly kicked him in the nuts. Also hard.

The guy's eyes widened, and with a low grunt, he dropped to the floor. Mimicking Ayame, she kicked his head, rendering him unconscious. "Hmmm… serves you right!"

Now that she was free again, Mine ran to Ayame, who was by now pretty pale. She hadn't noticed that one of the thugs had stood up again. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the middle of the room, uttering something that sounded like "You foul witch… you'll pay for this!"

He tightened his fist, and swiped at her. Mine squeezed her eyes shut as she waited for the blow to come, but instead, a blur of silver flashed in front of her.

Ayame took the blow. His ribs cracked.

As a counterattack, he rammed his knee up the guy's guts. They both fell.

But one of them landed on the hard floor, while the other one was caught in a caressing embrace by Mine-chan. For a split-second that lasted forever, cloudy olive eyes locked onto warm brown teary ones.

-PoP-

...TBC

R'n R please, constructive criticism more than welcome, youmay suggest what'll happen now that Mine has witnessed Ayame's transformation, there's a chance I'll use your idea, cuz' I'm using my own one only as a backup (I don't think it's that original, you see...).


	3. noon

_**W00t, I'm back!...kinda. Enjoy the chappie, and emm...I have no idea where this is going. XD**_

_Chapter3: noon_

It was raining in the streets. Children were at school, most people were busy working, and some were just at home, inside their dry and cozy houses or apartments, watching the raindrops plick against the window.

So were Yuki and Kyo at Shigure's house. For four hours straight, they had been staring at the window, sitting merely inches apart from each other. But they didn't care.

_As long as we don't move, everything'll be fine…_

They hadn't seen Tohru leave, but Hatori had told them when he came back from the bathroom, and the two hadn't even bothered to ask him why his hands were bandaged…after all, it was _today_. The doctor had blushed when he saw them looking at his hands, and had then stiffly sat down at the low table next to his brother.

Shigure and Haru were still sleeping, the last one seemed to be suffering from severe in-dream shizo-attacks, as his hair kept flashing from gray to white and back while ha was sleeping.

Kisa was still huddled in Tohru's warm blankets in her corner, and she had her eyes closed at the world for now, but at least she was calm. And Tohru'd be back soon.

-----Aya's shop

There hung a dreadful silence in the spatial room. The lights were out, and the only dim shimmer of the cloudy streets outside gave some luminance through the big glass windows. And in the silence, seven people were on the floor. Five because they had just gotten their asses handed to them, and two because they were in a state of shock.

Ayame wasn't aware of anything. He hadn't noticed that his assistant had caught him, and he didn't know that right now, he was the cold, rapidly breathing snake that lay in Mine's white apron.

Mine knew that her boss had protected her, and that he had probably saved her from an unwelcome treatment the thugs might've condemned her to. What she didn't understand was why Ayame was gone. Right now, she was too scared to comprehend what was happening, and she was on the verge of tears.

One thing, she did realize: she had to get out of here as fast as she could. When those guys woke up, she wouldn't stand a chance, even if they had all suffered minor and major injuries. And Ayame was nowhere to be seen…

Only when Mine was about to stand up and run for it, she saw the fragile silvery snake on her lap. Her brown eyes widened, but she didn't scream. She could see that the small thing was completely rigid and tense, and its eyes were squeezed shut, as if it was in pain.

She had never seen such an expressive snake before…

The water splashed up when Tohru dashed through the puddle, careful not to slip. She had gotten antiseptics for Hatori, milk AND cream for Kyo, some sweets for Kisa and Shigure, and something healthy to eat for all of them. Also, she had taken a shortcut past her school to get them all a day off.

She hadn't been all that surprised to hear that none of the Soumas were present today. It seemed that Momiji's mother had called earlier that day to tell that the family members that weren't at Shigure's would stay at her place for today.

Tohru began to seriously consider the 'another curse' option.

O-O-O-o-o

Mine sat completely still. The store was cold, the door was open. Her breath started to form little clouds in the chill. A shiver went through her body.

Ayame was cold. So very cold. His whole body hurt, and how he longed for some warmth…he slightly twisted himself in pain, barely able to gather enough energy to move.

Mine observed the tiny snake with tears in her eyes. The little thing was slowly curling itself up, as if it was getting ready top go to sleep…or ready to die.

She had never been really afraid of snakes…well, at least she wasn't afraid of snake leather, since she sometimes used it in her creations. Her boss never did, but he wasn't bothered by the fact that his assistant thought it was fashion like any other tissue.

This was a bit different, however. Mine found herself leaning away from the thing, prehistoric human-animal phobias arising in her mind. People have been afraid of snakes for a long time, since fear is in the first place a protection from harm; in this case from a poisonous bite.

But the girl soon regained her senses… how could she be afraid when the creature on her lap was so tiny and...weak? Slowly, she moved her hand over the snake.

Ayame shivered when he felt a little warmth radiating over him. He squirmed around, unconsciously trying to find the source of it.

Mine put her hand on the silver snake, and suppressed a shiver. The thing was so _cold_…she didn't know much about snakes, but that couldn't be a good thing. She felt a faint heartbeat, rapidly pounding underneath the scales.

In a flash, she recalled the moment when she had caught Ayame. In that endless time, she had felt the same heartbeat.

Her hand was getting cold…Mine withdrew it and placed her other one on the snake. She had no idea why, but she had this feeling that she should try to get the little reptile warm again. She looked around, and saw no sign of life from any of the five violators.

The snake sighed tiredly, contently resting under the blanket of body heat Mine provided for him. His blood started flowing faster again, and Ayame slowly regained consciousness. He dared to let his tongue peek out of his mouth for a split second and tasted the scent around him. Something clicked.

When she returned her attention back to her lap, the snake blinked its eyes open. A delightful olive shone in the irises, but her surprise was even greater when the silver thing suddenly whispered.

'…Mine-chan…?'

She gasped. She knew that voice too well for her own good. Her mind went in circles when she answered.

'Ayame-san…i...is that you?'

Mine saw the snake's eyes widen a little, before it squeezed them shut again. It started squirming again, and now, Mine tried to find what was troubling the little creature. She carefully prodded the snake a bit, and then she saw some pretty ugly bruises on its chest. Also, she noticed that some scales were rubbed off at its head, and whatever skin was underneath was a bit bloody.

'My god, it _is_ you…' she whispered breathlessly when she recognized the wounds. Now she also saw that wherever a snake's left shoulder could've been, there was a swollen bruise.

With tears dripping down her cheeks from the emotion of knowing that her boss was alive, Mine didn't even bother asking what happened or why he was in his current form, but she decided to leave the shop immediately.

Ignoring the sick feeling in her stomach she had gotten from the intense relief and very carefully lifting the injured snake in her apron, she stood up, still a bit wobbly from the tension and the worry she had experienced.

Only then she noticed that Ayame's clothes were laying in a heap on the floor, right in front of the spot where she now stood. Glancing at the limp silver snake, she picked them up in one arm while holding Ayame in the other, and turned to face the door.

Before she left, she locked the door with her spare key, one of the tokens of trust from her boss. Weird to imagine that at the very moment, she was carrying him warmly nested in a bundle of his own clothes.

Her face void of emotions, her gaze only focused on the path before her, Mine crossed the empty road. Good that there wasn't much traffic now. After all, it was a Friday, and it was nearly twelve a.m..

Her mind was set on one goal right now: to get her boss and her dearest, most precious person in the world to a safe place, to his family. The house where his little brother lived was closest, the one house of that writer called Shigure, she remembered.

Well, it wasn't that hard to remember when his family was one of the things Ayame talked about the most. It always gave her a warm feeling to know that Ayame could really care for his family, and sometimes she was even a bit envious of him having such a big family.

For some reason, she really appreciated that he asked her opinion and her advise about the problems he had with his younger brother. It made her feel a part of it, somehow. And even if they all acted strange at times, all the Soumas she knew were really nice people.

While her mind was being drowned in both worry and nice memories, Mine nearly forgot to stop at the phone booth on the corner of the street. With a grim determination, she took the phone of the handle, placed the bundle of clothes on a dry spot and called the police.

Devoid of emotion, she reported the attempted robbery. She told the officer to come via the back door, since the front door was locked, and that they shouldn't look for her or the shop's owner, because the latter was on vacation and because she herself didn't want to go near the thugs again today. She'd come by tomorrow to sort out the rest.

When Mine was done, she picked up Ayame again and checked his temperature again. When she felt that he was getting cold again, she pushed her hand under the layers of cloth. Careful not to hurt him, she gently stroked his scales as she ran along the pavement.

Meanwhile, Tohru was almost home again. She was glad that she didn't see any gaping holes in the walls or smoke rising from the house or anything like that. Out of breath, she slowed down from her mad running to a normal pace.

She thought about what she had witnessed on her way home…

When she had passed the Souma estate house, Tohru had observed the most pecukiar sight in her whole young life (well, apart from the first time she had 'hugged' Kyo, Yuki and Shigure):

In the garden, the most feared being of the whole family, Akito Souma was painting the fence.

And he was crying while he did it.

Tohru had been so baffled that she had dared to stare at it for at least five minutes. Akito, the frail, slender, fragile Akito was painting the fence white, with all the energy and might he had, while the tears streamed down his cheeks. His face was red from exhaustion, as if he'd been doing it for hours, and his black hair was matted against his skin, damp from sweat and rain.

After five minutes, he suddenly dropped everything, and rushed inside the house. A minute later, he came out again, took a deep breath and started again. He'd repeat the process every five minutes, as if he was a scuba-diver that needed to get extra air every so-often.

Tohru almost felt sorry for him…the way he was working as if his life depended on it, the way he cried as if he was trying to paint over a painful memory.

_He'll probably get sick in this weather…_ Tohru thought, but she shrugged the feeling off and hurried home to her more prominent worries at Shigure's house.

…now she was nearly there. Maybe things would be normal again soon. And until they are, she 'd take care of 'her' boys. Although she could use some help...she wasn't expecting any from Kisa, and her friends were at school where they belonged.

When she saw Mine running towards her with a familiar red bundle of clothes in her arms, her stomach dropped. _Never wish, because it might actually happen…_

_The problems weren't over yet._

_----well, tbc_

R1R please, cuz it makes me happy bling


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